who are the people who pay a year’s salary to listen to a politician?

It seems strange that the likes of Seb Coe can be paid between £10,000 and £25,000 for an after-dinner speech.

Consider first that the State pension is £6,000 p.a., minimum wage is £11,000 p.a., both average and median salary stand at about £25,000 p.a. and, according to Wikipaedia:

“In 2011, a Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman defined £15,000 as ‘quite a good wage.’.”

One queries how a speech or talk can be worth as much as a plebian’s annual salary.

One speech, during one evening’s dining out, in opulent surroundings, eating food prepared by the best chefs and catered for by numerous lackeys, is deemed comparable, in Social worth, to a year of trudging the streets, in all weathers, delivering Mail.

Obviously, This does not fit in with my sense of justice, or, rather, fairness.

However, there must exist a large group of people for whom this arrangement seems perfectly natural.

These are people who exist outside of normal society and presumably are happy with that Status Quo.

The likes of The New Labour Cabinet and the present Coalition Cabinet must belong to this group, judging by their circumstances and their lack of empathy with the electorate.

David Cameron’s New Year speech epitomises their attitude towards us,The Demos.

“People (You) have failed to make adequate provision for their Old Age”,

“We (MP’s , when tasked on expenses and outside interests) are underpaid”,

“You (Strikers, usually) are overpaid”,

“We are worthy of our hire”,

“We are your servants, you must obey us”,

“We are acting in your best interests”,

“Your best interests are what we say they are”.

But, it’s not just our political master’s.

It’s the people, who stump up these payments, who really worry me.

Can there genuinely be people, who’d rather listen to an hour of Seb Coe than go to the theatre, or watch some other cheaper form of entertainment? Is Sebastian Coe, or David Blunkett, or Tony Blair a form of entertainment? Is it “dance monkey, dance and we’ll throw you another peanut”?